Repeated Viewings Needed to Follow ‘Time and Tide’

“Time and Tide” exudes Tsui Hark’s trademark bravura: a torrent of rapidly cut images depicting dizzying nonstop action involving breathtaking stunts, breakneck pursuits and bloody shootouts. Visually, the film is a stunner with its impossibly mobile camera work.

It is also all but impossible to hold on to the story line. “Time and Tide” probably becomes clearer with repeated viewings, which is what a cult director like Tsui, famed for “Peking Opera Blues,” and many other stylish martial arts adventures, inspires. However, audiences looking for an action-adventure diversion that’s easy to track are sure to get lost in a plot so ever-thickening as to be virtually impenetrable.

Hong Kong pop star Nicholas Tse plays 21-year-old Tyler, eager to make big money fast and head for some South American tropical paradise. Eventually he crosses paths with Jack (Wu Bai), a disillusioned 35-year-old mercenary, a veteran of jungle combat, a far cry from Tyler’s fantasies. Seemingly on the run, Jack has returned home to Hong Kong after many years. Tyler signs on with a bodyguard agency and winds up helping protect a powerful underworld kingpin, who is none other than Jack’s father-in-law. Tyler and Jack hit it off but events propel them to opposite sides of escalating gangland warfare.

Tsui plays the emotional entanglements of both men against this the ensuing mayhem. Jack deeply loves his wife (Candy Lo), pregnant with their first child. Tyler’s one-night stand has left his lover (Cathy Chui) pregnant, but she declares herself a lesbian and tells him to get lost. In short, both Tyler and Jack are established as men with yearnings that collide with and complicate their increasingly dangerous existences. Tyler and Jack are likable, charismatic guys, but it’s hard to get very involved with them when it’s so difficult to get involved with “Time and Tide” itself.

* MPAA rating: R, for pervasive strong violence and brief drug use. Times guidelines: The body count is high, the gunfire near-constant.

‘Time and Tide’

Nicholas Tse: Tyler

Wu Bai: Jack

Candy Lo: Ah Hui

Cathy Chui: Ah Jo

A Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia presentation of a Film Workshop Co. Ltd. production. Producer-director Tsui Hark. Executive producer Tsui Hark. Screenplay Koan Hui, Tsui Hark. Cinematographers Ko Chiu Lam, Herman Yau. Editor Marco Mak. Music Tommy Wai. Stunt coordinator Xiong Xin Xin. In Cantonese, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

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